FORTY MILES from Manhattan, Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway, N.J., has long been a convenient destination for NBA scouts. Rather than trek to one of the Big Ten’s more remote campuses, why not catch a potential prospect in a road game at Rutgers instead?
But this season, Rutgers isn’t just a convenient place to scout the Scarlet Knights’ opponents. It’s the center of attention for NBA talent evaluators planning for the 2025 draft. While Duke’s Cooper Flagg is the early favorite to go No. 1, Rutgers is the home of two potential top-five picks in Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper for what is likely to be a one-and-done year for both. Some believe Bailey may be the only player capable of unseating Flagg for the top spot in the class.
To call Piscataway a surprising locale for future elite NBA talent would be an understatement. Since moving to a major conference in 1995 (the Big East, and then to the Big Ten in 2014), Rutgers has finished above .500 in league play twice in 29 tries. The last NBA draft pick directly from the school was in 2010, and the school’s last first-rounder was picked a few weeks before Bailey was born in ’06. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Rutgers to change the perception of its program forever, and maybe even reshape how top recruits think about what they should value in a college home.